This question was raised by the thread on my poem 'the secret pool'. Ed Roa wrote: 'I appreciate your writing style which is modern but retains lyrical qualities.'

This led me not only to consider the question as to whether 'modern' poetry could also be 'lyrical', but what was 'modern' poetry. Baffled, i realised that though I'd no idea what was 'modern' I'd a clearer view of what was 'old fashioned'. But how true was that? Much of the hard bitten, in-your-face stuff can hardly be termed modern, it's been around an age. No punctuation/caps likewise. So I'm just plain bewildered, before I even get to lyricism. What is distinctive of 'modern' poetry?

Cheers

milner

modern is as modern does
first we need a saviour

i really don't know
but i like the question.
 

Coincidentally, I've been wondering when I've found myself lately using lyrical to describe poems if it is actually quite the right word.   And, on googling, yes I think it is.

I'm not well-up on lyrical poetry, but meaning it as:

'highly enthusiastic; rhapsodic'

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lyrical


rhapsodic being a rather lovely and apt word:

'A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations...'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_%28music%29

I think "modern" is often cleaner, fewer adj's and adv's.  I think "modern" often finds ways for multiple meanings/understandings to surface.  I think "modern" is often ancient, or reminiscent of the best of the old.  I think "modern" moves sounds around from end-word positioning to resonate and bounce and ricochet, even grind against other words.

(Will have to "think" some more on this as every thing I consider as modern I can also recollect in writings I think of as old and older than old!)

Hm, SL. I would take 'contemporary' to mean something written now, but not necessarily in a current style. 'Modern' would relate more to more recent fashions and forms in writing. Having said that, 'modern' wouldn't necessarily exclude something written currently in an older form and style if the subject and approach was fresh and 'new', and it was patent that it wasn't just imitative in all ways of an earlier style. It's all confusing. To make a comparison with painting, if something was done as a realistic reproduction of the style say of Constable, it would hardly be called 'modern'. But if a Constable type of scene was painted, but using very different techniques, it could be 'modern'. But, to add to the confusion, if something was painted in the style of an old master, yet in such a way that the intent was patently ironic, where would that stand?

Perhaps I would call a poem 'old fashioned', if it seemed, or sounded, as if written in an earlier era. This wouldn't necessarily be an adverse criticism.

I've probably only succeeded in further muddying the water here. Viva mud.

Cheers

milner

I've probably only succeeded in further muddying the water here. Viva mud.

Cheers

milner



dear Milner

sometimes muddy is so very beautiful !

Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied - Acoustic Blues